10 Who Had a Rough Year in Banking
December 19, 2013 7:30 AM
The banking world was full of missteps and miscalculations in 2013. These folks - well, except for those who will remain behind bars - are hoping for sunnier skies in 2014.
Jamie Dimon, Chairman, CEO, JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
The year started with some investor advocates calling for Dimon to be stripped of his chairman's role - that effort failed - and ended with reports that the nation's largest bank could face criminal charges and pay a $2 billion fine for turning a blind eye toward Bernie Madoff's infamous Ponzi scheme. (JPMorgan Chase was Madoff's bank.) In between, of course, the bank paid $13 billion to federal authorities to settle a slew of mortgage issues and faced several investigations into its debt-collection practices . Perhaps no banker in the country is as eager to put 2013 behind him as Dimon.
Related Article:
(Image: Bloomberg News)
Maria Bouvette, Former Chairman, President, Porter Bancorp (PBIB)
Porter, based in Louisville, Ky., lost $33 million in 2012, and has yet to repay the $35 million it received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Unable to right the ship, Bouvette stepped aside in July to make way for new leadership.
Related Article:
CFPB Haters
The federal agency that the political right loves to hate is here to stay. Policymakers, business leaders and bankers who had been fighting to weaken or even disband the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely lost that battle for good when Richard Cordray was (finally) confirmed as the agency's director in July.
Related Article:
(Image: Bloomberg News)
Thomas Geisel, Former CEO, Sun Bancorp (SNBC)
The Vineland, N.J., company has struggled to find its footing in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Its board decided in November the time had come for a leadership change. Geisel, a former KeyCorp executive who had been Sun's CEO since 2007, left the company on Dec. 2.
Related Article:
Ron Hermance, Chairman, CEO, Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK)
Hudson City's longtime chief was supposed to have cashed out and retired by now, but circumstances beyond his control have put those plans on hold. The backstory is that Hudson City announced in 2012 plans to sell itself to M&T Bank (MTB) for $3.7 billion. But an investigation into M&T's anti-money laundering controls repeatedly delayed the deal from closing. How long it will remain in limbo is anyone's guess: M&T said on Dec. 17 that it was extending the deal's termination date to Dec. 31, 2014.
Related Article:
(Image: Bloomberg News)
Piet Moerland, Former Chairman, Rabobank
Moerland abruptly resigned in late October after U.S. and European authorities ordered the Dutch banking giant to pay a more than $1 billion fine for aiding a scheme to rig the London interbank offered rate. Moerland, 64, joined the bank's executive board in 2003 and had been its chairman since 2009.
(Image: Bloomberg News)
Saul Ortega, Former Chairman, CEO, First National Bank (Edinburg, Tex.)
The $3.1 billion-asset bank became the largest to fail in three years when regulators seized it in September. First National was done in by shoddy lending - it lost a staggering $136 million in 2012 - yet Ortega boldly predicted in January that the bank would be profitable in 2013. "I think we're on our way," he told the San Antonio Express-News. Oops.
Related Article:
Daniel Poston, Former CFO, Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)
Poston, who had been Fifth Third's chief financial officer since 2009, was demoted in November following a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the bank's accounting practices. The SEC alleged that in 2008, when Poston was interim CFO, the bank failed to record troubled loans it was selling at fair value, thus reducing the losses reported in that year's third quarter. The bank admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay a $6.5 million fine. Poston was reassigned, fined $100,000 and barred from working as an accountant for any public company.
Related Article:
Joe Reid, Chairman, CEO, Capitol Bancorp
It's been a rough few years for Reid as massive loan losses and depletion of capital forced him to drastically shrink the Lansing, Mich., company's vast network of community banks. But his efforts to save the once-high-flying company officially ended in 2013 after regulators seized five of Capitol's banks and Reid announced he was selling the rest to Talmer Bancorp .
Related Article:
Edward Woodward, Former Chairman, CEO, Bank of the Commonwealth
The Norfolk, Va., bank failed in 2011 and Woodward is paying dearly for its collapse. In the spring, a jury found him guilty of orchestrating a fraud scheme to cover up the bank's losses. In November he was sentenced to 23 years in prison and ordered to pay - gulp -- $333 million in restitution to the FDIC. Woodward will have company in the slammer; His son, Todd, was recently sentenced to eight years behind bars for his role in the bank's failure.
Related Article:
(Image: Thinkstock)
